“I think if we’re going to start contracting out the security of the flying public, then why don’t we contract out the FBI or DEA or Secret Service or Capitol Hill Police?” he said in an interview.

Costello, a former police officer, said screening should remain in the hands of trained professionals, not companies looking to make a profit.

“Security is, in my judgment, a function for professional law enforcement officials and should not go to the lowest bidder and that’s what you have when you contract out,” he said. “The safety of the traveling public should not be jeopardized in order to save money.”

Airlines were in charge of hiring screening companies prior to the creation of TSA in late 2001.

Even though TSA hasn't caught any terrorists, by all means, let's continue to protect the public from 90 year old grannies in wheelchairs, the disabled, and those wearing ostomy products. Oh, and don't forget, we love having our possessions ripped off while we get hands stuck down our pants.

What she cares about but is not mentioning is .....UNIONIZED....Government ....Employees....That

Can't be FIRED.

Right now they're GOVERNMENT employees but NOT Unionized.

A TSA supervisor and two otherTSA agents based at a completely different airport have been arrested for stealing thousands of dollars in cash from the luggage of travelers, while another was arrested and fired for seriously assaulting a co-worker in a dispute over a parking space.

TSA agents have stolen valuables from luggage worth up to $160,000 in the last month at several airports.

They TARGET mostly females of another nationality.

One stole $5,000 last week from the screening ramp at JFK.

People are having their laptops and even planting drugs on people they deem unlikeable to their power.

This underscores how armies of degenerates are being employed by the Federal government and given the authority to push around and dominate children and people in general.

We don't NEED a UNIONIZED agency that you can't FIRE them.

IF Obama wants sexual predators fondlingly children and females... that you can't FIRE.... let Sheila Jackson Lee and her family step forward.

I'm inclined to think the best solution is let the government continue handling airport security concurrently with setting up private sector airport security with the goal of transferring all such work to the private sector within whatever is determined to be a reasonable period.

The lowest bidder aspect doesn't bother me. With 50 or so years experience working in the business environment, I've become a believer in awarding contracts to lowest bidders. In doing so it is, of course, absolutely necessary the contract terms clearly define the required work, methods for evaluating and fine tuning performance, a plan for recurrent training and fair compensation.

With a sufficient number of private sector security firms from which to choose, competition between the firms will go a long way toward maintaining top-notch security and do so without the inefficiencies - aka dollars - associated with government projects.

Oh God this lady makes me ashamed to even live near Houston. By her reasoning being a government agency makes the TSA more agile, and more capable then anything in the private world... How stupid and insane do you have to be to believe that?

Can you please name one thing that the government does better then the private marketplace?

Someone needs to place a camera in the bottom of a pool so this fool will drown herself trying to get on TV.

OK, I will set aside that Ms Jackson is the most unintelligent member of Congress and a cereal race baiting socialist. Oh, and with that hair style, all I can think about is a bad Star Wars knock off movie. That aside, we have hundreds of years of success of non-government business and non-union employees performing sensitive and critical tasks that are vital to the safety of our country and communities. Was the FBI always unionized? Local law enforcement? or even FEDEX? they could easily deliver explosives all over the country. She and all her minions seek to promote the permanent bureaucracy that owns her and her and her ilk. She is a discgrace to the great state of Texas. Wait a minute...she was elected in the conservitive State of Texas? Shame